Hollywood is racist: Chloe Bennet on changing her name

The 25-year-old took to Instagram to praise the English actor for stepping down from the project as it was important to “honour ethnic minority stories and voices in arts” when he himself comes from “a mixed heritage family”.

After actor Ed Skrein dropped out of Hellboy reboot following public outcry against whitewashing in Hollywood, Chloe Bennet has revealed that she had to change her name because “Hollywood is racist”.

The 25-year-old took to Instagram to praise the English actor for stepping down from the project as it was important to “honour ethnic minority stories and voices in arts” when he himself comes from “a mixed heritage family”.

Skrein was roped in to play Major Ben Daimiom which was an Asian character in the Hellboy graphic novels.

When one of the followers asked Bennet why she had changed her name from Chloe Wang, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor said people would not give her a job as her name would make them uncomfortable. “Changing my last name doesn’t change the fact that my blood is half-Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese. It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn’t cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable. I’m doing everything I can with the platform I have to make sure no one has to change their name again just so they can get work,” Bennet wrote.

Earlier, the actor had posted a note thanking Skrein for standing up against Hollywood’s “continuous insensitivity and flippant behaviour” towards the Asian-American community.

“There is no way this decision came lightly on your part, so thank you for your bravery and genuinely impactful step forward,” she wrote.